After many months of planning, re-planning, and making arrangements, builders today have come on site at St Augustine’s.

They are beginning work on the Visitor Centre area, and work will continue into 2017. After the Visitor Centre is complete, the interior of the church will receive work to restore it to Pugin’s original designs.

Keep up to date online, and on Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates!

This work would not be possible without the donations of our wonderful supporters and Friends. Please e-mail us to join the Friends or to offer additional help.

Hail, Gladdening Light is the title of the Thames Chamber Choir’s concert, as they return to sing at St Augustine’s.

The concert will be on Saturday 16th July, at 7.30pm

Tickets are £10, and the choir have generously offered the proceeds towards the restoration project at St Augustine’s.

Featuring lots of wonderful music, including Monteverdi Madrigals and Vaughan Williams’ Three Shakespeare Songs, the concert is one not to miss!

The Thames Chamber Choir, led by Andrew Campling and Christian Spielmann, is a London choir which sings around the UK. The choir has about twenty members, and sings mostly unaccompanied music ranging from Renaissance to modern day pieces.

The choir sang a wonderful concert in March last year, and are returning to St Augustine’s this summer on 16th July.

Come along to this first ever Blessing of the Sea – with the Mayors of Ramsgate, Margate, and Broadstairs.

A wonderful opportunity to reinforce our links with the sea.

Assemble at the Obelisk in Ramsgate Harbour, next to the Victoria Pavilion, towards the sea from the bus stops. The service is expected to take about 20 minutes, and will have hymns, readings, and prayers.

A two-floor flat is to be created in the tower at Augustus Pugin’s personal church in Ramsgate. Spread over two floors, it will have spacious living areas with fantastic sea views. An atmospheric stone spiral staircase leads up to the flat, giving a truly medieval experience of tower living.

There will be an attractive roof terrace on top of the tower, with great potential for summer soirées and cocktail parties. Caution should be taken in windy weather.

The tower is 75ft high, and so has some of the best views available on the Westcliff. Overlooking the English Channel, France can be seen easily on clear days. The Goodwin Sands – with the world’s highest concentration of shipwrecks – are often easy to spot, and there are excellent views of the town of Ramsgate and the Kentish countryside too.

Architects Thomas Ford and Partners will create the flat. It will be made in the same Pugin style as The Grange and St Edward’s Presbytery next door.

It is hoped that the flat will be ready to use at the same time as the brand new Education, Research, and Visitor Centre opens in 2017, along with the restoration of the Chancel and Lady Chapel of the church.

Rector, Fr Marcus Holden, said, “Well, we saw the success of Landmark Trust and their custodianship of Pugin’s home and presbytery next door, and we thought that the tower provided an ideal opportunity for us to do something similar. We’re breaking the mould a bit, because Pugin never actually intended for people to live in this tower, of course.

“A church is often called ‘Domus Dei’ – House of God – because its primary function is worship of God. But, we thought, why not make part of it ‘Domus Populi’ – House of People – too, and make it a bit more domestic?

“Perhaps holidaymakers will invite pilgrims and parishioners up for parties in Pugin’s church tower. We’re especially looking forward to the April Fool’s Day parties.”

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The famous Bishop Schneider, auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, is coming to St Augustine’s on 23rd February. He will celebrate Pontifical High Mass at 7pm on that day.

The celebration is in honour of King St Ethelbert, on the 1,400th anniversary of his death.

All are welcome to attend.

St Augustine’s is very pleased to welcome Bishop Schneider back to St Augustine’s. He last celebrated Mass here for St Augustine’s Day in May 2014.

For those coming from a distance, there is ample free parking on Royal Esplanade, just to the west of the church. Alternatively, St Augustine’s is about a mile from Ramsgate railway station, which is served by trains from St Pancras International, London Victoria, and London Charing Cross. There are buses and taxis available from the station.

King St Ethelbert was the King of Kent, and supreme king of the English up to the Humber, when St Augustine arrived in 597AD from Rome. King St Ethelbert allowed St Augustine to preach Christianity to the English, and soon Ethelbert was himself baptised by St Augustine.

King St Ethelbert, with St Augustine, established Canterbury Cathedral and St Augustine’s Abbey in Canterbury. He was buried in St Augustine’s Abbey when he died in February 616, and he was soon venerated as a saint. His shrine-tomb and relics were destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538. It is through King St Ethelbert’s collaboration with St Augustine that England became a Christian nation.